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So I've logged about 80 hours into this game and most of that has been rolling a bunch of different characters to see which ones I liked. I finally decided on a Marauder (Berserker/Street Fighter) because I love the risk-reward playstyle of it, and the idea of being a Barbarian tank. Now, I'm ALMOST done with all of the content I've seen so far (Port Maje stuff, and a few bits and pieces of Neketaka), but I'm definitely feeling the fatigue of doing the same stuff over and over again (I've got most of the dialogue for Port Maje and the surrounding areas memorized right now). I had a few questions for folks regarding the scale of certain aspects/playstyles of the game, and I was hoping you could help me out. I also have one random question regarding a choice made in the first game that doesn't seem to have been properly reflected.

1. How big are the factions in this game?

One of my biggest issues with PoE1 was how little the factions in Defiance Bay had for you to do. You did the two or three quests for your chosen faction, they gave you support at the animancy trials, and then they popped up again during the Battle of Yenwood Field (Which was, to be honest, one of my favorite parts of the White March). I've heard the factions in this game, especially the New Principi, lauded as being a vast improvement over the first game in terms of their interplay and the NPCs involved. I just hope there's more to do for them.

2. How big are Neketaka and Dunnage Quest-Wise?

Port Maje is definitely the "Gilded Vale" of Deadfire, which I suppose makes Neketaka "Defiance Bay" (Multiple districts, regional seat of power, etc.). My issue with that is that, once Defiance Bay was over, the game felt pretty sparse in terms of quests. You had the god quests and a few others in Twin Elms, but that was really it. I've never been to Dunnage, but I'm hoping that it's at least a little more substantial than Twin Elms.

3. How much do you lose out on by playing a 'bad guy'?

I'm playing this game as a character who lives by the philosophy of survival of the fittest, and favors abusing and manipulating those weaker than him to get what he wants. For instance, I threatened the Dawnstars on the road to Port Maje for their money and killed Ilari so he wouldn't be a problem later (Gorecci Street is FUN on Veteran). I was actually thrilled when Eder called me out on my actions and I had the option to tell him that I don't apologize for who I am. My question is, how much does the game punish you for playing such a self-serving character? I've played a lot of RPGs that seem inclined toward the 'good guy' route, and taking a more aggressive/murderous option seems to result in getting locked out of a lot of stuff.

Bonus Questions:

1. Can someone link that spreadsheet with all of the background specific dialogue checks again? I want to see how many options Raider gets compared to Slave.

2. Where the heck is my cannon? I heard that if you bound the souls in Durgan's Battery to the cannons, you get a special one for your ship, but it didn't show up at all. Is it bugged, or do I have to wait for Hasongo to get it?

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It's significantly bigger and more complex than Pillars. It feels like there are a lot more small dungeons. Neketaka is much bigger and has much more sidequests than Defiance Bay. The factions are bigger and their quests go with you until the end game; you can also do all of their quests up till the last one. There are arguably five factions (Rauatai, Valians, Huana, Principi traditionalists, New Principi). There are smaller factions, but they're not nearly as developed as the ones in New Vegas.

Wouldn't know about bad guy play, but my guess is it turns some PCs off, but as long as you're not a murderhobo you probably won't lose that much.

Well the only game Obsidian has ever made with bigger factions was Fallout New Vegas, and that one is only a little bigger. The vast majority of the games best quests, story beats, and content is initiated on behalf of one or more factions. They are huge, and critical to the game, even if not critical to the main plot.

2. How big are Dunnage and Neketaka quest (aka content) wise?

Think of Dunnage like Dyrford Village just slightly bigger. I feel like that is a fair comparison. Neketaka though? Take Defiance Bay, combine it with Twin Elms, and increase it by another 25%-50%, and you will get Neketaka. It is that big with that much content.

3. How much do you lose out by playing the bad guy?

Basically nothing. Some companions may get pissed at you, drop you, maybe you get a mutiny on your ship. I won't go into spoilers, but let's just say there are many many chances to be the bad guy. At some points in the game it is even easier for your character if you are one.

Bonus questions!

Spreadsheet?

Nope, not linking it. Don't play the game by data, play what you think is fun.

Cannon?

You should get the cannon when you leave Neketaka the first time I think, but I don't believe you had to pair the souls to the cannons in White March. You just had to not free them entirely.

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Nope, not linking it. Don't play the game by data, play what you think is fun.

This. Nothing beats playing the game blind and finding out everything on your own. I do confess that I check a few things here and there, like what companions are romanceable, for example. And I did take a look at that spreadsheet. But I sticked to my initial plan of playing a pirate and using my character from PoE1.

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I thought the faction system here was MUCH MUCH more fleshed out than in PoE1. big improvements all around.

also? no way to make them all happy. YOU will get to decide how to shape the deadfire for generations to come, both with main, side, and faction quests. again, I think they did a damn fine job with that for the most part.

to me, it felt overall about the same size as PoE1, not including dlc content. most areas again feel much more fleshed out on release than they did in PoE1, though there are plenty of tiny "dungeons" that are just filler content.

the pirate theme at times felt shoehorned, at times seemed to fit right in. it was good enough that you could indeed do an entirely pirate themed adventure build and do just fine by both the story, and the combat, though it could have been a tad better. I'm betting there will be at least one DLC that plays to that aspect more soon.

the game is easy enough that you don't need to min/max your main character, or frankly any of your companions, and literally can use your imagination to build your character as you see fit. this of course has both good and bad aspects to it, in that for those of us who have played MANY games like this before, it will seem a bit easy at times if you do decide to build a character designed around doing extremely well in combat, even if you play the game on max difficulty and scaling.

my overall advice right now would be:

if you like to balance combat and story, set the game on veteran mode and let your imagination run wild when you make your character. the combination possibilities are near endless, and they did a good job of actually including even the most obtuse character builds into dialogue choices at various points in the game.

if you're more about seeing what the combat has to offer, and seeing how fast you can burn down your opponents, and have played a lot of these kinds of games.... set the difficulty to maximum EVERYTHING, and STILL do NOT focus on min-maxing your main character, and you will find some challenge there.

if you're dead-set on seeing challenging combat at every turn, and creating the ultimate combat character, you will need to go outside the game and grab some difficulty mods from Nexus Mods for this game to be much challenge. there are already a few out there that do a decent first attempt at making the game more challenging.

it's a fun game, no matter how you decide to play it though. I had a lot more fun with this than I had with PoE1.